3G interrupting mobile coverage?

[MZurf]

In my wife's home place the signal strength for the mobile phone (both DTAC and AIS) has gone down. This happened around the same time as the introduction of 3G networks, and the locals blame this for the degraded signal.

My sister in law has bought a cheap, old style mobile phone (non-smart without 3G ability) and claims that the signal she gets with this one is much better.

Is there any truth in this, and if yes, can I tweak the settings in my wife's phone to boost the signal?

[Dah fahrang]

I have suffered the identical problem.

When 3G came on stream, AIS unilaterally switched me from TH.GSM to AIS network. The signal on my Samsung Galaxy Fame went from 4 bars to no bars.

When people tried to call me, the phone would ring, and then I could hear the caller, but the caller only got a garbled noise from my end. I terminated the call, and called the caller back. Then OK, but signal was intensely weak, speech broken. Other times, incoming calls failed to connect at all, (no ring tone on my device) and I got an SMS telling me "this number tried to call you". My phone was never turned off, so dropped calls were inexplicable. I got fed up with this, so I phoned AIS to complain - they were very helpful, and courteous, and phoned back to say their engineers had checked the signal in my area, and assured me that where I live is under their 3G footprint. They asked the engineer to 'boost' the signal strength, and asked me to try it. I did. Useless.

 

So, in my phone, (Galaxy Fame) I reverted back to GSM only network. Result: 4 bars on the network strength, no missed calls, no garbled speech.

To do this, go to settings, then more settings, then mobile networks. There, under network mode,  I chose to detect/connect automatically to GSM and WCDMA or not. I switched this off, and chose GSM only. As I write this, I have full signal strength. I told AIS I had done this. The girl, fluent in English explained that the GSM network will be terminated in the near future, so they and I should work together to try to solve the AIS 3G network problem. I have abandoned doing this.

 

Don't know how many people nation-wide suffer this problem, but seems to me they will be terminating the GSM network and a lot of people are likely to have no service at all.

 

Footnote. I live in a point where there must be dead spots between different access points. when I visit my local town, Photharam, and I re-set the settings for WCDMA, I get 4 bars.

 

 

[MZurf]

Thanks - really helpful info!

[forgetit]

Most unlikely that thy will switch of GSM nationwide. It might be done in areas like BKK. Pattaya and other places with high people density. But not in most on Thailand.

 

The old TDMA GSM networks have a much wider footprint per basis station than the WCDMA UMTS networks will have. So you need less of them to serve the same area. And they are already built. 

[RichCor]

If you own a 'smartphone' you can download utilities apps like 'Network Signals' that will report your current Network, SIM Operator, Network Type, Network signal strength, and type of Data Connection (if enabled on phone).  With these types of apps you can determine the towers your 2G or 3G connection is pinging (connecting to)

 

You can also view the Carrier's coverage maps online. If they integrate with Google Maps then you can see the radius patterns predicting coverage.

 

The new 3G bands are in the 2100 Mhz frequencies, giving less distance/in-building penetration when compared to the previous 1800 or 850/900 frequency concessions.

 

Just count yourself lucky that you're not a 3GX customer living in northern Thailand.

[Jdiddy]

Yeah 2100mhz is great when there is a cell tower every square km

 

back in Australia and NZ they use 850/900 for nation wide 3G and then use the 2100 band for high density, high capacity, short range, it works well, here you seem to be stuck on 2100 with AIS, DTAC and True, 850/900 should be the primary bands

 

 

[Dah fahrang]

update to my earlier post in this thread.

 

AIS 1175 call centre have been extremely pro-active. Repeated calls and text messages from them, in English, assuring me my problem was being dealt with.

Thursday, 7 August: call from their technical department in nearby Nakhon Pathom, telling me engineers would call at my home.

Friday, 8 August, two AIS technicians arrived, with their bits of gear and gizmos, and spent about 20 minutes detecting mast locations, direction of masts and signal strength. Even connected a big white box with flashing lights to my 3BB Ethernet check 3G  (dunno what) via the internet.

 

Conclusion:

Although a mast is only 2 km away, the directional beams are not pointed in my direction. Result (theirs): very poor to non-existent signal on 3G.

They will file a report/recommendation to their office, which will result in the local mast having extra 'beams' or devices/dishes to create such, installed.

Two very helpful, very informed guys.

 

AIS: thank you. And to think, I am only on your 200 baht a month basic package and get this sort of service! WOW.